Last night, Division 1 leader, John Robertson, headed the NASPA director's
meeting. It was a 90-minute gathering attended by 55 or so NASPA directors.
Topics discussed ranged from attracting new players, keeping existing players,
growth of NASPA overall, Code of Conduct consistency, and so much more. Look
for minutes soon! The meeting was fun, but the reception afterwards was even
better. A salon on the first floor was opened just for directors and their guests.
Light appetizers were offered on doily-lined silver trays and an open bar with
soft drinks and wine was made available.

Heading into the room ten minutes after the start of games, I see Chris Lipe (Rome, NY)
wandering outside the playing room, his face buried in an iThing. "Why aren't
you playing?" I ask. "I did," he responds — apparently his game with Leesa Berahovich (Berkeley, CA)
ended after six turns of zero. Holding CANZONS, needing an A or an E for
CANZONAS or CANZONES, she made a clever opening play of ZONAS* for 48. It came
off the board, and Chris, holding ELORSTU, traded the U. Assuming a trade-one rack
would contain the needed E, Leesa passed, planning to bingo back after Chris drew a
bingo. Chris pulled an R, and chucked it, and Leesa passed again. Chris, having
pulled TOLLERS, passed to end the game, and the final score was -7 to -18.
This combined score of -25 sets a new NASPA record as the lowest-scoring game
in the books. Coincidentally, the division 1 leader, John Robertson, was
the director in Albany, NY, in the summer of 2010 when the last lowest record
was set: Marlon Hill vs. Ben Schoenbrun (Ardsley, NY), combined score of -22. Of the game
between Chris and Leesa, John Robertson said, "Did you hear that Chris Lipe
'millioned' someone?" Seeing my blank look, he explained, "yeah, those six zeros... "

Table 1 in division 2 featured a couple youngsters: Bradley Robbins (Windham, NH) vs.
Richard Spence (Tucson, AZ). I see HEIsTER and POIsING. Later on, ACROGENE* went down and
Richard let it stay, knowing he could win even with Bradley getting those
points. After the game ended, Bradley challenged Richard's out play (it was
good) and then asked for a recount. They went from a 390-386 win for Richard
to a 390-385 win.

In the battle of the Nigels, Nigel Richards (Malaysia) proved to be more Nigel-y than
Nigel Peltier (Seattle, WA). It was great fun to see them quietly slogging away at
table 2 in division 1. The play that impressed the younger Nigel was
HORTAtORY by the NSC/WSC champ. Younger Nigel got down ENDOSTEA and
LAWSUItS, but it was a 443-381 for the other Nigel.

Michael Bassett (Port Clinton, OH) vs. Patricia Hiller (Austin, TX): mENTIONS and SWIPERS on their in-progress
game. It is worth noting that Michael looks great. He was pulled up to the table
with both legs underneath and a passerby could not even tell that he'd had
surgery and a cast. Not only did he come back to play yesterday, he hung around
and participated in the after-hours Directors Meeting.

Never forgetting for a moment that they were playing a fun game, Noah Lieberman (Charlotte, NC) and
Linda Villarreal (Unknown city, TX) returned from the challenge machine laughing. Their game ended a few
moments later and both of them were grinning widely. I see ATELIER, BOATINGS, and
CASTeRS on the board. It was his win, 373-337. Noah tells me that for some cultural
fun, his mom, Katya Lezin (Charlotte, NC), and sister, Hannah Lieberman (Charlotte, NC), went to see a theater performance
of Little Shop of Horrors at the Water Tower Theater. Upon hearing him tell me this,
his mom walked by and offered to have Hannah sing the whole show to me since she
knows it by heart. Maybe at lunch time?

Today is the "Wear Orange Day," an annual event started and kept going by Jason Keller (Highland Park, NJ),
who is a huge fan of that color. So, today, from head to toe, he is clad in orange.
I greeted him and wished him a good morning and said to myself, "did he just bat his
eyes at me?" Upon closer examination, I saw why he did this: Terry Kang Rau (Hudson, NY) had opened
her magic makeup pallette and applied orange eyeshadow to his lids. He is now
even more orange, dude.

Gene Tyszka (Mississauga ON), suffering from the warmth more than most, approaches me with a towel
around his neck. He looks like a prizefighter's ringside coach! He smiles and says,
"Well, the younger brother (referring to Kenny Hoang (Cary, NC)) beat me by two points
earlier in the tournament and now his older brother (Andy Hoang (Cary, NC)) just beat me
by 135!" Andy played three bingos, including GRATINEE, which drew a challenge from
Gene. He said he was able to swallow his pride and admit defeat. Gene is the top
seed in the division.

Michael Thelen (West Jordan, UT) had eyes the size of silver dollars, when I walked by his game with
Randall Thomas (Calgary AB). So, I pulled up a seat and watched them play their last racks.
It was a 641-325 win for Mr. Zyzzyva! The whole romp started a few moves in when Michael
played KHOUM for 40, then the steamroller continued: INHERITS, REIGNING, SCARIOSE,
EtErNISE, and REINDENT*. This is five bingos in a row, followed by XU for 52. Of the
game, Randall said, "After the third bingo, I could tell I was in trouble because there
were no blanks played yet." Randall did play JUST for 57 and KEBAB for 42 on triples and
he kept in it, but not enough in it!

Ted Gest (Washington, DC) finds me, having just played Doug Lundquist (Chicago, IL). He told me how Doug was using
new tiles he'd not used before and he was worried about them. He was so busy fretting,
he was kind of missing just how awesome his drawing was with them! He got a
bingo/bango/bongo of KINEMAS, SOOTHED, and MUTINOUS. A 586-242 win for Doug!

Kenji Matsumoto (Aiea, HI) had a nice game against Bradley Whitmarsh (Attleboro, MA) this round. Nice in that Kenji
played four great bingos: STATING, SIMULARS (which drew a challenge), CLAMORED, and
tEAWARE. Bradley played the fun double-double OVULATE, RETAINER, and NIOBIUMs. He
also front hooked to make UNSTATING to the triple. Kenji's win, 474-410.

Martin Weisskopf (Huntsville, AL) tells me of a disturbing phenomenon. He is here, as always, with his
lovely wife, Mary Ellen Weisskopf (Huntsville, AL). They are noticing a distinct and disburbing phenomenon
so far. If he wins, she loses and if he loses, she wins.... So.... they are in a
bad codependent win/loss cycle. I wish for them some intervening witchcraft to shake
this thing up.

And so, the giant has fallen. And to an earth science graduate student from
Berkeley. Jesse Day (Berkeley, CA) did what no one has been able to do for two days:
defeat Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY). Dan Stock wrote a second tableau for Joel, where it mentions
his 14-game winning streak. As he put it up this morning, he said to himself, "I sure
hope this doesn't jinx Joel... " So, Joel has someone he can blame now! Anyway, of
this win, Jesse said "I have been the luckiest human being on this planet." Joel
jokingly said, "Yeah, he's a Lou Gehrig for sure!" Jesse won, 478-387 and has
been averaging 457 per game at this NSC. Please do check out their game in the
annotated section of the web site!
Sam Kantimathi (Sacramento, CA) played VeRMEIL hoping to draw a challenge from his opponent this round,
Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA). At game's end, Alan explained that though he is now a coach of a different
team, for years Dick Vermeil coached the Los Angeles Rams and of course Alan
knew that word! Sports and SCRABBLE, they are like this (fingers entertwined).